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By Kosta Gak, Alex Stambaugh and Anna Cooban, CNN Kyiv/London (CNN) — Ukraine has made good on its promise to halt the transport of Russian gas to Europe through its territory after a key deal with Moscow expired on Wednesday. Ukraine’s refusal to renew the transit deal was an expected but symbolic move after nearly three years of its full-scale war with Russia and comes after Europe has already drastically cut Moscow’s share of its gas imports. Ukraine’s energy ministry said it ended the deal “in the interests of national security.” “We have stopped the transit of Russian gas. This is a historic event,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that its gas transportation infrastructure had been prepared in advance of the expiration. Last year, Kremlin-owned gas giant Gazprom, which signed the transit deal with Ukraine’s Naftogaz in 2019, recorded a $6.9 billion loss, its first in more than 20 years, due to diminished sales to Europe, Reuters reported. That’s despite its efforts to boost exports to new buyer China. Ukraine now faces the loss of some $800 million a year in transit fees from Russia, while Gazprom will lose close to $5 billion in gas sales, according to the news agency. Several European countries still purchasing Russian gas had previously arranged alternative supply routes, it reported. The lapsed deal had represented about 5% of the European Union’s total gas imports, according to Brussels-based think tank Bruegel, and supplied mainly Austria, Hungary and Slovakia. Now, after its expiry, Europe receives pipeline gas from Russia via a single route: The Turkstream pipeline, which runs through Turkey and on to Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary, says Bruegel. Henning Gloystein, head of Energy, Climate & Resources at Eurasia Group, said the deal’s end came as “no surprise” but expects it to trigger a jump in spot gas prices when markets reopen on Thursday. But “a major price spike as seen during the previous Russian supply cuts is unlikely as EU importers have long prepared for this (scenario),” he told CNN, adding that most of Europe has had a mild start to winter. The European Union has been working with countries for over a year to prepare for the possibility of the deal’s expiry, a spokeswoman for the European Commission told CNN. “The European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to provide gas of non-Russian origin to (central and eastern Europe) via alternative routes,” the spokeswoman said. “It has been reinforced with significant new (liquefied natural gas) import capacities since 2022.” “We did our homework and were well prepared for this scenario,” Austria’s Energy Minister Leonore Gewessler said in a statement on X early Wednesday, adding that the country’s energy firms had sought out new, non-Russian suppliers. However, Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday that the halt of Russian gas flows via Ukraine will have a “drastic” impact on the EU but not on Russia, according to a Reuters report. Fico has previously argued that the end of the deal would lead to higher gas and electricity prices in Europe, the news agency said. What does this mean for Europe? Before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia was the European Union’s biggest supplier of natural gas. The bloc has whittled Russia’s share of its pipeline gas imports down from over 40% in 2021 to about 8% in 2023, according to the European Council. To fill the gap, Europe has imported vast quantities of liquefied natural gas (LNG) — a chilled, liquid form of natural gas that can be transported via sea tankers — from the United States and other countries, as well as pipeline gas from Norway. The EU has also ramped up imports of Russian LNG to help heat its homes and power its factories, but faces a self-imposed deadline of 2027 and plans to break its dependence on all Russian fossil fuels. Analysts told CNN last month that countries receiving Russian gas through the transit deal with Ukraine are not at risk of an energy shortage and would likely fill the gap by importing more LNG or more natural gas via pipeline from other European nations. Still, Massimo Di Odoardo, a senior natural gas researcher at energy data firm Wood Mackenzie, told CNN in late December that the deal’s expiry would make it harder for Europe to refill its stores before next winter. That’s one reason why European gas prices are likely to remain close to their current levels or perhaps rise in 2025, he said. Prices have tumbled from all-time highs reached in summer 2022 but are still more than double their historical levels. There are already signs of strain in the region. Reuters reported on Wednesday that Transdniestria, a breakaway region of Moldova, a non-EU country that also receives Russian gas via Ukraine, had cut heating and hot water supplies to households following the expiry of the transit deal. The-CNN-Wire & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley Wednesday defended the decision of his administration to impose a state of emergency (SoE) in Trinidad and Tobago, saying the national had to act “decisively to restore a balance between the fundamental rights of all citizens and the protection from the dangerous excesses carried out by a lawless few”. The government announced the SoE on Monday due to the threat to national security posed by reprisal killings and the use of high-powered weapons by criminals. Acting Attorney General, Stuart Young explained that the SoE was declared based on information provided to them by the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS), adding that there were elements that could not be divulged. In his New Year’s message,  Prime Minister Rowley said it is his hope that citizens will enter 2025 “energized, with clearer insights and that we are more open to new perspectives on the challenges that face our nation”. He said that it is in this context that he is asking the country to consider the existence, at this time, of the SoE “which is aimed at criminal elements in our society who have engaged in open warfare against each other and who were executing plans to make this unacceptable state of affairs the norm in Trinidad and Tobago. “Much as we treasure our fundamental rights and freedoms, when murder, home invasion, kidnappings and extortion become the choice of commercial activity and sustenance of persons who threaten the peace and security of the national population, the State must then act decisively to restore a balance between the fundamental rights of all citizens and the protection from the dangerous excesses carried out by a lawless few. “ Rowley said that as a government, it understands that some citizens may, at some point, hold fears about the direction of the country, rather than hope,” but I urge that they try to imagine how intolerable and shattering our lives would be without that virtue of hope. “Understandably, both fear and hope reside within the human spirit and they can be misplaced, equally, with false expectations, but fear always has to be conquered, while hope, as a moral virtue, has to be sustained. We need that virtue of hope in order to successfully undertake our nation’s business.” Police Commissioner Erla Harewood-Christopher said that the SoE has guaranteed positive results with at least 46 people being detained since the measure came into force. “The additional powers available to the police service will empower it to use its intelligence to launch very invasive policing operations targeting known and prolific offenders, especially those involved with illegal drugs, firearms and ammunitions, and the commission of violent crimes, including kidnapping, home invasions and homicides,”  she told a news conference. “We will continue to use the power legitimately and guarantee we will get the desired results. We will be transparent in our communication and will hold ourselves accountable for ensuring the public is kept informed.” The Police Commissioner said it is inevitable that the public would be inconvenienced at times, assuring law-abiding members of the public that the TTPS  would be fair and responsible over the period while calling on the public to be responsible and cooperate with law enforcement. “The safety and security of Trinidad and Tobago,” she replied to a question asked about what targets the police is working towards during the SoE. “We want to ensure our citizens feel safe at all times,”  she said, adding that 46 people were detained nationwide since the SoE came into effect. Chief of Defence Staff, Darryl Daniel, said under the Defence Act, the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force (TTDF) would continue to provide aid to the police. “With respect to the SoE, as empowered by regulation 20 of the Emergency Powers Regulations 2024, where the police commissioner has requested assistance from the defence force, we will act in accordance with general rules and special instructions I will issue in accordance with what is required. “We look forward to assisting the police to address this critical challenge to public safety and ensuring we return the nation to a state of safety and security through these operations,”  Daniel told reporters. Opposition Leader Kamla Persad Bissessar in her New Year’s message said “without a doubt, 2024 has been one of the most difficult and challenging years for Trinidad and Tobago”. She said that it was the year the country experienced “unparalleled trauma and terror from the unprecedented crime and violence wave that has plunged our nation into a seemingly permanent state of darkness and despair”. She said this was reinforced by the declaration of the SoE. “Over 625 citizens were murdered, even as others suffered countless financial losses and destruction brought on by rampant home invasions, assaults, robberies, and extortions,” the Opposition Leader added. In his message, Prime Minister Rowley said that “the start of 2025 could be an appropriate time to ask ourselves, individually, some basic questions: “How should I live my life”, meaning, “What values shall I live by? “What sort of person should I be? “What shall I aim for? “ He said that these age-old questions should be raised daily by parents in every household, in family gatherings, in schools, churches, mosques and mandirs, in every workplace, in social exchanges and even among members of Parliament. “They become more crucial as the nation enters 2025 with a cautious sense of optimism which requires that each citizen acknowledges his or her individual responsibility to the nation, because the challenges, we face have to be handled collectively – particularly, the rising crime situation.” Rowley said that many of the country’s “immense economic challenges in our economy are being navigated successfully and the country is on a path considered to be sustained growth”. He said last year, Trinidad and Tobago recorded its third consecutive year of real gross domestic product (GDP) growth, with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) World Economic Outlook the country  a 2.3 per cent estimated growth rate for 2025. “What is significantly encouraging is that economic recovery is being led by our non-energy sector. Our Heritage and Stabilisation Fund stands at over six billion US dollars, according to our last budget, and foreign reserves are at US$5.4 Billion, giving us a comfortable buffer of seven to eight months of import cover, and our unemployment rate remains contained, much lower than our neighbours.” Rowley said that these positive aspects should support “our collective hope, given the immense and unprecedented challenges of the past decade, ranging from international oil shocks, gas market fluctuations, restructuring of our key economic components, and the devasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. “Citizens should see further hope in the vibrancy of our Social Services sector, where citizens in need have access to vital services. Hope can also be found in the records that not a single gazetted public servant has lost his/her job, a boast that many of our Caricom neighbours cannot make. It is found also in our low Inflation rate which, in October 2024, measured at 0.2 per cent.” Rowley said that his hope for the new year is that “where we have found success, we will continue to enjoy those benefits and resolve to stay the course to do even better. “Where our efforts have not borne fruit in a manner commensurate with our output and expectations, we must not lose hope or give up in any way but we should commit to even greater efforts and make necessary adjustments where they are required”.

NASSAU, Bahamas, CMC – A 38-year-old man will re-appear in court on May 1, 2025, after he was charged with the sexual assault and murder of 12-year-old school girl, Adriel Moxey, whose body was found in bushes near her home on November 20. 2024. Police say that Chris Ferguson is responsible for the death of the seventh-grade student at Anatol Rodgers High School and that she had been raped and murdered by him. Ferguson faces the death penalty if found guilty of the charges given that he is charged under a section of the Penal Code that would allow prosecutors to seek the death penalty. He was not required to enter pleas to the charges when he appeared in court on Monday before Chief Magistrate Roberto Reckley, who informed the accused that a lawyer would be appointed in the Supreme Court. The matter has been adjourned to May 1, 2025, for the presentation of a voluntary bill of indictment.